Saturday, April 02, 1983

Fury / Kiihko. US 1936. D: Fritz Lang. VHS. The commencement (Spencer Tracy's ostensible guilt, the process of the lynching) is actually rather conventional. First the course of the trial and the account of Tracy's rage really ignite the film. For Lang it must have been personal....WEST BERLIN4.4.1983 a video and film night with Helmut Arlt.- Clips from Kiss Me Kate / Anna suukko, äkäpussi (US 1953, George Sidney) and Since You Went Away / Kunnes palaat (US 1944, John Cromwell).- Tex Avery cartoons and Gene Nelson dance sequences.- TV: Hier ist der Londoner Rundfunk: Der Deutsche Dienst der BBC 1938-1945.- On 35mm film: from a silent comedy compilation: Pearl White - Snub Pollard - Charlie Chase.- On 35mm film in scope: the last reel from I Could Go on Singing / Suuri voitto (GB 1963, Ronald Neame, with Judy Garland, Dirk Bogarde.Night of the Demon / Paholaisen palvelija. GB 1957. D: Jacques Tourneur. tv. DF. A demonic nocturne. Lucid cinematic storytelling. This goes to prove that T's greatness was not dependent on Lewton.Directed by John Ford. US 1971. D: Peter Bogdanovich. Arsenal. A fine full-length portrait. Clips from 26 movies. Among the interviewees: John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Ford, himself. Invited to Monument Valley to be interviewed, the only thing he says is: "Cut!"Vortex. US 1982. D: Beth B & Scott B. Arsenal. Lethally boring avantgarde from New York.Diva / Diiva. FR 1981. D: Jean-Jacques Beineix. Kurbel. Brilliant but with little substance.Броненосец Потёмкин / Panssarilaiva Potjomkin / The Battleship Potyomkin. [x]. Arsenal. MoMA 16mm print with the Edmund Meisel score, sound speed. Meisel's score struck me as sharp, clear, and Eislerian. - Discovering montage. Griffith: parallelism. Gance: escalation towards ecstasy, explosion. Eisenstein: dialectics, the unity of the opposites, dynamics, the multi-layered reality expressed with a bite; clarity and multidimensionality simultaneously. Montage as the method of modern experience. The overflow of events, impressions and information pushes us to find ways to express the abundance of life without clichés. E. searches for primordial images and proto-images and on the other hand hyper-sensitive ways of expression.Pat and Mike / Amor sekaantuu peliin. US 1952. D: George Cukor. tv. A sensitive and intelligent comedy. Spencer Tracy is the coach who solves Katharine Hepburn's strange ego problem, because of which she always putts the golf ball askew: it is because of the overbearing male friend in the background.The Academy Awards for the films of 1982. Great show, little point about the statues.14.4.1983 a video and film evening at Helmut Arlt. Video: Broadway Melody of 1938 / Broadway Melody 1938 (US 1937, Roy Del Ruth). +The Love Goddesses [2] 35mm16.4.1983 TV: ARD-Hitparade. Culture Club: Do You Really Want To Hurt Me. David Bowie: Let's Dance. Bananarama: Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye. Malcolm McLaren: Buffalo Gals.Арсенал / Arsenal. UA-SU 1929. D: Alexander Dovzhenko. Arsenal. [2] An unexcusably bad print ruined the viewing. The fine rhythm, the alternation of the slow and the fast scenes, was ruined.Criss Cross / Elämän ja kuoleman leikki. US 1948. D: Robert Siodmak. tv DDR. DF. A taut movie, dubbed the Tristan and Isolde of film noir by Carlos Clarens, a kind of a remake of Siodmak's The Killers, Burt this time with Yvonne De Carlo. Its sturdy grip never lets go. In the climax, the big heist, the camera ascends into heaven and follows the course of the crime from above. There is a fateful sound in the final scene.La Boulangère de Monceau. FR 1962. D: Eric Rohmer +La Carrière de Suzanne. FR 1963. D: Eric Rohmer. Institut Francais. The two first filmed entries to Les Contes moraux. The first four are the best. Made with a mini budget financially but with an A budget spiritually.Litan. FR 1981. D: Jean-Pierre Mocky. Fantastival. This might even have been a fascinating dream adventure, unless there hadn't been that terrible screaming music.22.4.1983 Fantastival gala evening:- Adventures of Captain Marvel (US 1941, D: John English, William Witney) - pilot episode. The whole series was screened during the festival, and I saw some four of them. Shazam!- Hammer trailers- Ray Harryhausen as special guest- an audience contest of the best monster dress (the winner was a werewolf)Letajushtshi korabl / Das fliegende Schiff. UA-SU 1960. D: Mihail Juferov & Artur Voitetski. Fantastival. DF. By accident this film based on a Russian folk tale was included in the festival. Not up to the Ptushko standards.Tsherez ternii k zvojzdam 1-2 / Vaikeuksien kautta tähtiin / Die Frau aus dem All / Per aspera ad astra / To the Stars by Hard Ways. SU 1980. D: Rikhard Viktorov. Fantastival. DF. From deep space, from a polluted planet, a space woman is rescued on Earth. A children's movie, and too childish for that.High Noon. [2] TV DDR DF. Now felt too self-important and synthetic.24.4.1983 simultaneously on another channel the Eurovision song contest, including Carola Häggkvist: Främling / The Stranger. Britain and Spain are good, Finland not the weakest. Trash it is, but why does it have to be that way.La Collectionneuse / Keräilijätär. FR 1967. D: Eric Rohmer. Institut Francais. Two male friends collect art. In a beach villa they meet a girl who collects men (although she denies it: "je ne suis pas une collectionneuse"). The smile of Haydée Politoff is captivating.She / Kuolematon kuningatar. GB 1965. D: Robert Day. Fantastival. DF. An awkward H. Rider Haggard adaptation starring Ursula Andress (Undress, but of course "nothing" is shown). Only the shock ending if effective: in an instant the eternal queen ages a thousand years turning into a wrinkled heap, skeleton, ashes.The Snake Woman. GB 1961. D: Sidney J. Furie. Fantastival. DF. A bad horror movie from the moors of England. The doctor conducts weird experiments with snake venom. The superstitious villagers conduct arson and burn the doctor's house, but a baby is secretly rescued. 20 years later in the moors at night there is a snake woman wreaking vengeance. The inspector of Scotland Yard will not believe in it until he discovers the skin of the woman from the moor - the snake monster has shed its skin.20 Million Miles to Earth / Venuksen valloittajat. US 1957. D: Nathan Juran. Fantastival. The research capsule from a spacecraft to Venus hits the coast of Italy. It includes a little egg. Out of the egg gel moults a lizard-like creature which, when aroused, turns into a raving beast. In the atmosphere of the Earth it swells into supernatural proportions and destroys half of Rome until the armed forces of Italy bring it down. Beautiful animation by Ray Harryhausen.Petlja Oriona / Orionin silmukka / Phaeton an Erde. SU 1980. D: Vasili Levin. Fantastival. DF. Gulp - I don't remember anything about this. In 2008 I read from the IMDB: "A strange phenomenon has been noticed on the outskirts of our Solar system that quickly approaches the Earth. It's called Orion's Loop. A spaceship with a crew of people and androids identical to them is sent to intercept the anomaly. But strange events start happening as the spaceship approaches the mysterious loop. Written by Boris Shafir."Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie / Saragossan salaisuus. PL 1964. D: Wojciech J. Has. Fantastival. DF. An imaginatively sprawling, teasingly erotic, labyrinthine adventure from Napoleon's war in Spain. Borgesian-Sternbergian cinema.Ex-Convict. US 1904. D: Edwin S. Porter. Arsenal. The ex-convict is down and out. He saves the life of a little girl on the street. Later he enters the girl's house and is mistaken for a burglar. The girl saves the day, and the family starts to help the ex-convict. Primitive cinema.Native Land. US 1942. D: Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand. Arsenal. Beautiful, engrossing, accusatory, upsetting, noble. Stories from the fight for civil rights and violence in the USA. Diamond-sharp cinematography.How to Make a Monster. US 1958. D: Herbert L. Strock. Fantastival. DF. The new bosses of the film studio decide that the age of the horror movies is over and fire the special make-up master. Soon there is a series of horrible murders at the studio, conducted by Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, etc., the new bosses as the first victims...Fade to Black / ... kun valot sammuvat. US 1980. D: Vernon Zimmermann. Fantastival. I don't like the current "movies on movies" trend, but there are some saving traits here. The total alienation of the movie freak from reality. He now only lives through the movies: Kiss of Death, White Heat, The Seven Year Itch, The Prince and the Showgirl. The main actor has adopted the Tom Ewell manners. His character is one step beyond - to the worse - from Ewell's character in The Seven Year Itch. Rickie Sherman 15 years later.

About Me

Antti Alanen (born 1955) is Film Programmer at National Audiovisual Institute (Finland), which runs the Cinema Orion in Helsinki. This diary is an irregular notebook and scrapbook of rough notes on films and related matters. Spoiler alert: I spoil everything because for me plot and conclusion are essential to discuss!

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Freddie Redd Quartet: The Music from The Connection [1960] (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 2/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Introducing Freddie Redd (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 1/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 28/2017

Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contrasts

Jazz Record of the Week 20/2017

Joe Henderson: Page One

Jazz Record of the Week 17/2017

Miroslav Vitouš: The Bass

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: All or Nothing at All (5 Original Albums 5/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Stay with Me (5 Original Albums 4/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers (5 Original Albums 3/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Body and Soul (5 Original Albums 2/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues (5 Original Albums Box Set 1/5)

Jazz Record of the Week 14/2017

The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin: The Inner Mounting Flame

Jazz Record of the Week 13/2017

Eero Koivistoinen: For Children

Jazz Record of the Week 8/2017

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

Jazz Record of the Week 7/2017

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: In a Mellotone

Jazz Record of the Week 6/2017

Duke Ellington: Piano Reflections

Jazz Record of the Week 5/2017

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew

Jazz Record of the Week 4/2017

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Jazz Record of the Week 3/2017

Dollar Brand Quartet: Africa – Tears and Laughter

Jazz Record of the Week 52/2016

Albert Ayler: Goin' Home

Jazz Record of the Week 49/2016

Charles Lloyd: Forest Flower, live at Monterey

Jazz Record of the Week 48/2016

Sinikka Oksanen, Antero Stenberg, Radio Sessions 1959-1966

Jazz Record of the Week 47/2016

Django Reinhardt Vol. 6: 1940: Nuages

Jazz Record of the Week 43/2016

The Essence of Louis Armstrong (Phontastic, Sweden, 1987)

Jazz Record of the Week 42/2016

Tomasz Stańko: Balladyna

Jazz Record of the Week 39/2016

Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else

Jazz Record of the Week 38/2016

Tommy Flanagan Trio: Overseas

Jazz Record of the Week 37/2016

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles

Jazz Record of the Week 36/2016

Red Garland Trio: Groovy

Jazz Record of the Week 35/2016

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things

Jazz Record of the Week 34/2016

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Jazz Record of the Week 33/2016

Christian Schwindt Quintet: For Friends and Relatives

Jazz Record of the Week 32/2016

Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio

Jazz Record of the Week 25/2016

Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues

Jazz Record of the Week 24/2016

Sonny Rollins: A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957, 2 cd reissue 2016)

Jazz Record of the Week 23/2016

Charlie Mingus: Blues & Roots

Jazz Record of the Week 22/2016

Mal Waldron: Moods

Jazz Record of the Week 21/2016

Django Bates: Belovèd Bird

Jazz Record of the Week 20/2016

Jacques Loussier Trio: The Original Play Bach Vols. 1 & 2

Jazz Record of the Week 19/2016

Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: Side by Side

Jazz Record of the Week 18/2016

Ray Charles: Genius+Soul=Jazz. Complete 1956-1960 Sessions with Quincy Jones (Genius+Soul=Jazz, The Genius of Ray Charles, The Genius Hits the Road, and from The Great Ray Charles and The Genius After Hours)